In Between Chaos And Love
by Trasselgirl
Summary: Two siblings, one of them in a gang which play with life and death. A huge secret, easily kept because they had no friends. Three new students, accidentally finding out about it. And then there's the attraction between two of them... AH/OOC/Plz read! :D
1. Prologue

**PLEASE READ THE A/N BELOW! **

**Howdy everybody! ;)  
****I'm looking for a Beta right now... If you happen to know somebody that is awesome, PM me! **

**This story will start off as a Rosalie/Emmett story. After a few chappies though, it will turn into a Jasper/Alice story...**

**Give it a try! You **_**might**_** get surprised. :D**

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**PROLOGUE**

The bus stopped at Forks elementary school. The students dwelled out the small doors, eager to see their friends at school. Only two kids weren't in a hurry at all. They sat next to each other in the back, both of them oddly quiet.

One of them was a blonde with a beautiful face. She looked like a younger, more beautiful version of a supermodel like Heidi Klum. She wore black from top to toe and a leather jacket even though it was snow outside.

Next to her sat a boy that almost looked dangerous His hair was also blonde, but it had a darker, dirty shade. The whole boy was dirty, including the clothes he wore on his muscular body. That was another of the things that made him odd. Boys whom were his age didn't have such big muscles.  
By then, there were only a few people left on the bus, and they were on their way out.

"Promise me," The beautiful girl whispered seriously. "Promise me that you won't do it."

The boy frowned – "Fine," he said with a smooth voice. "Don't worry, I wont."

The girl nodded with a small smile and stepped off the bus. She walked towards the same direction the other students walked towards – Forks elementary school.

The boy stared after her silently. When the bus drove off, he pulled up a phone from his pocket. He dialed a number and waited for the person on the other side of the line to answer.

"Ya, it's me," The boy said. "I've thought about you offer..."  
The boy was quiet for a second before he said the rest of the sentence. "You can count me in." In his head, he added: _I'm sorry_.

Many years later, the boy and girl thought back to that exact moment, both of them thinking of it from their own point of view. That moment had changed their life in a way they had never expected... It was a decision between lives or death and it hadn't been a good choice.

This is their story, with _all _the details included, even those you didn't want to know.


	2. Thick Layers Of Dust

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight... Obviously. I do however own a very cute, plastic penguin... Ha-ha. **

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**CHAPTER 1, ROSALIE'S POV**

The dirty, ex-white walls hadn't changed at all during the hour I'd been staring at them. The chair I sat on was if possible even more uncomfortable than it had been a while ago. I was surprised that it hadn't split into small parts yet. I wouldn't miss it if it would do so. Muddy, hard wood was hardly anything to miss.

I sighed, because I knew that I had to start getting ready. Missing the bus was not something I liked to do.

Dried pieces of dirt fell of my skin as I stood up. That reminded me again why I wouldn't miss the ugly chair if it broke. Nevertheless, then I wouldn't have anything to sit on, except for the dirty thing Conny and Laila called a mattress. My substitute for a bed, since they didn't afford to buy me or my brother beds. I had never complained, but I suspected that they found the mattresses in the dump.

I randomly pulled up some clothes from the floor. Underwear, blue baggy jeans and a long sleeved black shirt that I was pretty sure belonged to my brother... _Bingo!_ That would be OK as my outfit for the day. It probably didn't look cool –these were the times when I wanted to have a mirror-, though I always dressed like this. There was no other choice for me.

After I got dressed, I quickly put some make-up on. I had grown used to the smoky eyes I always made that I didn't need a mirror to do that. I put up my long, blonde hair in a ponytail. Taking one last breath, I threw my empty school bag over my shoulder –prop, so I wouldn't seem too odd- and opened the door.

I glanced back one time, glanced back to the small room that was supposed to be my and my brother's bedroom. It was more of a mess than usual. As messy as a room similar to a jail cell, only having an area of seven square meters (I didn't know exactly) and only containing three furniture, could look. The furniture was my mattress, my brother's mattress, and the ugly chair.

The whole room looked as if it had suffered from an explosion that had put a thick layer or ashes, dirt and dust on everything. I completely loathed it. That didn't change anything though.

I closed the door and walked down the small hallway to the kitchen. The only was to leave the house was through the kitchen and then the 'front door'. The house my brother, our foster parents and me lived in was very small. It contained two bedrooms, a bathroom and a kitchen. The dust covered all of the rooms in thick sheets. It was _gross_.

Already before I walked into the kitchen, I heard angry voices. It wasn't a rare thing that Conny and Laila (our "lovely foster parents") had a fight. They were stupid enough to remain married even though they hated each other. Both of them were sitting at the kitchen table, which only had two chairs. They were eating a piece of old bread. I recognized it as the food my brother had stolen for us a few days ago.

"What time is it?" I interrupted their fight.

Conny snorted. "Late, so leave before I kick your filthy ass out!"  
Conny was the ruder one of them. He was about forty years and treated me like trash after I refused to fuck him. He was bald; fat; and if that wasn't enough, disgusting. Especially disgusting was the smell of sweat that surrounded him.

Laila, who was sitting next to him, was not much nicer. Her favorite hobbies were fighting, writing, and then fighting a bit more. "I'm saying this the fucking last time, Conny! We're killing Martha instead," She growled.

Conny disagreed (Geez, how _surprising_). "No, we're shooting her in a few weeks!"

For someone who didn't know them, it sounded like they were planning a crime. That wasn't what they were doing at all. They were authors – terribly bad authors, I could add. I once read one of their stories. After that, I couldn't sleep for weeks. Even my brother could write better than that, and he had never went to High School.

I decided not to stick around and see how they would kill Martha. Instead, I slammed the front door and jogged towards the bus station.  
I didn't have a jacket and the days only got colder. Most days in Seattle and Forks were cold, but it became worse on the autumn. I'd have to beg my brother to fix one for me – Conny and Laila would obviously not buy me one.

It took a while to run to the bus station, even though I was racing forward quicker now. The bad, dangerous neighborhood we lived in had a reputation bad enough to make sure that no bus ever stopped there. That meant that I had to walk about twenty minutes, in the creepy backyards of ruined houses, until I reached the closest station where the bus stopped.

People had ranked Seattle as the third city with most crimes in Washington. **(A/N: I don't know if this is true or not, but let's just say that it is, okay?)**. I lived in the worst part of it, and honestly, I doubted that there could be much worse things on Earth. If such cruelty could exist... I wouldn't want to continue living.  
There were many times I didn't want to live...

The only thing that made me stay alive was my brother. And _he_ had to face the consequences of life or death every day. _Ironic, wasn't it? No._

When I finally reached the bus station, I saw that the bus wasn't there yet. I'd have to wait a while. I tried and failed not to think about my brother. He often appeared in my thoughts. The problem was that whenever I though of him, I though about facts of him, which lead me to memories I didn't want to be reminded of.

His name: Jasper Whitlock. Age: Nineteen years. Birthday: The ninth of December – the same day our mother died. Other things I knew about him: He looked dangerous with his dirt blonde hair and muscles, and his dark eyes that once used to be blue.  
He hadn't gone to High School, but had a higher IQ than most of the people in Forks. He was the fourth in command in the largest, most dangerous gang in Seattle. Trust me; there were many gangs there. He had to do awful things to earn us enough money to keep us alive.

Oh crap and _rotten cucumbers_... _That_ explained why I didn't like to think of him. It brought along too many guilty feelings. Lucky for me, the bus came and stopped at the station. As I walked past the ex-con bus driver, he glared at me, as always. Some things just never changed.  
The bus was dirty and looked like it was on a verge of a breakdown. Even though I no longer was in the worst part of Seattle, this part wasn't a piece of cake either. Only three people were sitting on the bus except me.

I had to look forward to a forty-minute bus ride until I reached my school, Forks High School. It was a normal school; somewhere in-between fancy and ugly. I didn't go to a school in Seattle, because I didn't want anybody to find out about... Well, things with my brother. And that we only had a budget of twenty dollars per day – when Jasper had been successful. I wasn't ashamed of it (not much, at least) but I knew that people would treat me differently. I'd be nothing more than a piece of trash in their eyes, which was one step worse than the nobody they thought I was now.

I was not popular in Forks High. The students all treated me like a freak – I've freaked out in class a few times, and I had not wanted to date the school "hottie", Tyler Crowley, when he asked me out.

A few stops later, Jessica Stanley, Angela Weber and Mike Newton walked on the bus. They sat a few rows in front of me, and they didn't notice me. They were the so-called "popular persons" whom "everybody" wanted to hang out with. Personally, I thought that they were ridiculously false and bitchy. That didn't stop me from eavesdropping on them though. Ha-ha, I noticed that judgmental look you would give me if you were in this story. Hey, I had nothing better to do!

"I'm so excited about the Cullen's!" Jessica squeaked. Her false voice, loud giggles and the way she kept throwing her hear back was just a few of her 'false rich girl qualities'. It felt as if she had tried to be the new Barbie. Key word: _Tried._

"I wonder if they will be nice," the quieter Angela said.

"Of course, they'll be! Lauren saw the new boys, and apparently, they're really hot. We definitely have to score a date with them." Jessica glanced at Mike, obviously trying to make him jealous.

_Who__ does it matter to that four new students are going to attend the school? _They would be just like the rest of them: rich and addicted to gossip. Even I knew things about the Cullen's, and I almost never listened to gossip. Their names were Edward, Alice, Emmett, and was it... Beth? Whatever. One of the new doctors in the Forks hospital had adopted them when they lived in... Whatever.

"The weird thing is that all of them are so _hot_!" Jessica sighed, once again jealous.

I rolled my eyes and pretended to sleep during the rest of the bus ride. I could compare listening to Jessica with an extremely slow suicide. EXTREMELY slow and boring. The bus stopped a while later and the driver announced that we were at Forks High.

I was the last one to walk off the bus – I always was; it was one of my daily routines since the first day I went to school without my brother. I loved routines, and honestly, how could anyone not like them? Routines kept life nice and easy. They kept me out of the spotlight, out of reach from curious questions.

I walked over to my locker, pulling out random books as I looked at my schedule. _Just great, go ahead and ruin my day_, I muttered too low for anyone to hear. My first class for the day was Home Economics, which I called Homecs.

Before you think that I was overreacting, let me just say that you never had Homecs with Ms Fitzburg. She wasn't the only terrible teacher at Forks High (the math teachers hobby was to give detentions and the history teachers got all her info from Wikipedia). However, I thought that Ms Fitzburg was the most ridiculous.

She had split up the seating charges so that the boys sat in the front of the classroom, where she could show off her way-too-low-cut-cleavage. Meanwhile she gave the girls death stares. She probably thought that she was _hot_ or something. _Hmmpf_. In reality, she was in her mid-forties and had acne all over her tits. I tried not to look, but she honestly didn't know that clothes weren't made to show off her boobs as if she was naked. On the other hand, maybe she didn't care. That option was even more disgusting.

I didn't bother to hide my annoyance as I marched to the Homecs classroom. Not only did I have a terrible lesson I had to attend, I also heard how all the students giggled behind my back. That wasn't anything new, but they usually weren't so obvious about it.

Hanna Wider and her boyfriend whispered and pointed at me, and they looked away when I glared at them. Josephine and Rachel openly stared at me. Jessica mumbled _freak _when I walked past her. Seriously, where did they get all the newfound attention on me? I wore the same clothes as usual; my emo-makeup looked like it always did; and I had not gotten in a fight or anything like that. I hadn't done anything that wasn't in my routines.

I sighed and did my best to ignore it, even though it was harder than usual. Shouldn't they be whispering about their new, shiny toys –the _Cullen's_? It was when I walked into building four I saw Lauren Mallory. I did _not_ want her to see me. If I knew her right, she had probably spread some rumor about me which made people gossip about me. _Lovely?…_ _Hell no_.

I had a complicated past with her. The story started with her acting like a bitch and it ended with her acting like a bitch. Somewhere in between that, she found out some of my secrets – such as that I had a brother- and had tried to seduce Jasper. She was the biggest whore I knew.  
Each time she noticed me, she said some mean comment which made people gossip about me. Today, I really wanted to avoid her, since there was already too much attention on me. That was why I rushed into the Homecs classroom as if my life depended on it.

However, I shouldn't have looked down to the floor in my hurry to escape her. Suddenly I crashed into something that felt like a brick wall but must've been a person. A guy type of person.

"FUCK!" I swore under my breath. A sore head was not one of the things I needed. _At all._ My head spun and I tried to re-gain control of my sight but it was too complicated.  
_Who the fuck_ spent _so much time_ on his muscles that crashing into him made me _dizzy_?

Well, except Jasper and his gang, who all needed those kinds of muscles to survive? I doubted that any of the rich kids in Forks High was in a gang or anything similar.

"Aww, are you falling for me already?" A smooth voice, which I didn't recognize at all, said.

_What__ the hell was _that_? _


	3. Hoping Doesn't Get You Anywhere

_**Previously **_**_in In Between Chaos and Love:  
_****  
****Suddenly I crashed into something that felt like a brick wall but must've been a person. A guy type of person.  
****"Aww, are you falling for me already?" A smooth voice, which I didn't recognize at all, said. **_**What the hell was **_**that**_**?**_

**_Disclaimer:_ I do not own Twilight or any of its characters, SM does.**

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**ROSALIE'S POV**

I took a step back and looked at the boy. I found myself staring into a pair of dark blue, deep eyes. I still had no idea who he was – I would have remembered his handsome face if he was one of the students.

Then it dawned upon me. He must be one of the new boys. Oh, that explained it... None of the old students in Forks High had eyes like that. If I had remembered how pureness looked, I would call the look in his eyes pure. But how could a guy with such nice eyes be so _arrogant_? _'Falling for me already?' _It didn't surprise me that he would fit in well with the boys in this school. They were all porn-watching idiots who refused to accept that not every girl had a crush on them.

I saw the expecting look on his face and realized that he waited for me to say something. Since I did not, he apparently decided to break the ice or whatever.

"My name is Emmett Cullen," He said. And _my_ name is 'will you please move out of the way so I can go in to the classroom'.

Tons of sarcastic responses swirled in my head but I didn't say any of them. It would bring unwanted attention on me. I could feel how every student in our six-meter radar turned to stare at us. They were eager to see if I'd say anything worth gossiping about, or maybe they were just thinking about how "hot" the new Cullen boy was.

"Aren't you going to tell me your name?" Emmett started to look confused by now. However, after someone would tell him what a freak I was, he would be embarrassed that he had even talked to me.

"Rosalie," I finally muttered as I pushed past him, and threw myself in my usual seat in the back. I pulled out a pencil from my pocket, and didn't look up until I heard Ms Fitzburg's nasal voice.

"Sit down, everyone!" She ordered and wrote something on the whiteboard.

Emmett walked up next to her and cleared his throat. "Excuse me, ma'am, where shall I sit?" Huh – he was polite. He didn't seem like the usual teacher's pet, though.

"In your regular place," She snorted without looking at him, assuming that he was Jason or someone who regularly asked that question.

"I'm new here... Emmett Cullen?" Ms Fitzburg gasped when she turned around and saw Emmett. It was quite funny to watch her getting flustered.

"Oh, I'm sorry." She stared him and it was obvious that she tried to form a coherent sentence. "The only free seat is next to Miss Hale. Miss Hale, please raise your hand so that Emmett can see where you are." I rolled my eyes and slowly raised my hand. Emmett looked uneasy at sitting next to me. _Sigh_.

**You didn't expect him to be happy about it, so why the bitterness?**

Now I was not only a freak, I also talked to myself and imagined that the voice was my brother. Lovely.

**Next step to insanity is talking to thin air, Sugar. **

Stop calling me that! And shut up!

**Then stop talking to me****... Sugar. **

SHUT UP!

**Whatever you say …**

Great, just great. Sometimes I zoomed out and pictured Jasper talking to me in my head. Now was _not_ a good time for that though – besides, fake Jasper was annoying.

When I finally zoomed out of my thoughts, I saw that Emmett already had taken his seat next to me. I noticed the stares people gave us – only this time, I wasn't in the spotlight too much. It was Emmett's turn to get the attention of gossiping students. Not that he seemed to mind. He still had that confused look on his face.

I knew that my classmates were feeling sorry for his bad luck; that he had to sit next to me, the freak. Jason Roderick, who sat in the seat in front of ours, confirmed my thoughts. He leaned back towards Emmett. "Tough luck, dude," Jason whispered while he stared openly at me.

I mouthed 'fuck off' to him – I just couldn't help it. Jason knew how to get on my nerves. Emmett had an even more confused expression now, but I wasn't about to explain.

Ms Fitzburg interrupted Jason from saying anything else. "Today, we are going to talk about calories. Does anybody know how many calories teenagers at your age have to eat each day?"

I lost myself in thoughts while Ms Fitzburg rambled on and on about counting calories, eating healthy and whatever. Counting calories was not something I could do with the small amount of food Jasper brought home. I ate what he brought me; it was as simple as that.

"When you are done, take a worksheet from this pile and work on it the rest of the hour," The teachers irritating, high-pitched voice cut through my thoughts before I had gone too deep into unpleasant thoughts. Even though I loathed Ms Fitzburg, I couldn't help but feel a little grateful for her saving me from my thoughts.

However, it would have been good if I had listened enough to know what she wanted us to do before the worksheet. Now I had to ask poor-polite-little-new-rich-kid next to me. If Jason or anyone heard me, they'd definitely start gossiping about the freak actually _talking_ for once.

"New Guy, what are we supposed to do?" I mumbled quietly to him. Normally I didn't give a shit about working in class, but Ms Fitzburg constantly threatened me by saying that I was on the edge of not passing her stupid class.

"My name is _Emmett_ and we're answering the questions on page fifty-one. Want some help?" _Did he think that I was _stupid_ and needed his help?_

I snorted. "I'd rather want help from a fucking dog." He looked offended... I almost apologized but I stopped myself in the last second. I, _Rosalie Whitlock_, did not apologize to anybody – no matter how cute his dimples were and how nice it was to see him smile.

I noticed the glances he gave me when he thought that I wasn't looking. It was the usual _what the fuck is her problem_ glare I knew so well. When the bell finally rang, and announced that the class was over, I was the first one out of the classroom. I had collected my books in a record speed and almost rushed out. How ironic, I exit the room the same way as I entered – trying to escape from a person.

How… unusual.

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**(****ALICE'S POV)**

Today was my first day in the new school. During the day so far, I had thought of the mysterious man appearing in my dreams sixteen times. Yes, I was counting. It frustrated me that I always woke up before I saw what he looked like. I knew only one thing of him – that I would love him with all of my heart.

It was obvious that none of the guys in Forks High School were anything like him. Forks High School itself was dull and not at all fun.

I had already had three lessons before lunch, and I found none of them particularly interesting... Oh whatever, I found them boring as hell. The students weren't too interesting either. None of them had designer clothes! Only a few of them seemed both nice and pretty. Not many of the people in my classes were brave enough to talk to me. I didn't know whether that was a good thing or not.

I could tell that none of the six girls, whom had talked to me today, was a tiny bit curious about me. They either wanted attention (believe me, _everyone_ was _staring _at me), or a piece of gossip, or they asked about my brothers, Emmett and Edward. The boys who had talked to me were even worse – they all asked me out on dates. Heck, I didn't even know their names!

Being the new girl _sucked_.

I was on my way to the lunchroom when I heard how somebody ran after me. Then the person started to walk next to me. I turned my head and recognized a girl from my Spanish class. We had chatted a bit but I couldn't remember her name.

"Hi Alice," She squealed. I almost gagged when I heard how fake her voice sounded. Not only that: she sounded as if she tried to mimic a strangled duck. I reminded myself that I shouldn't be judgmental. I should definitely _not_ think of how ugly her clothes were... because things like that _didn't matter to me_... I kind of realized the lie in my thoughts – of course those things mattered to me!

"I'll show you to the cafeteria. You can sit with me and my friends if you like, and your brothers too! Where are you from? I've lived here practically my whole life. Except for that one time..."

Then she started to babble.  
I had seriously never met a more self-absorbed person before, or someone who talked as much as that girl. During the short walk to the cafeteria, (Forks High wasn't exactly big), she had managed to tell me about tons of things, while I merely got time to nod.

For example, everything about her friends, all the teachers, all things to do in Forks (not many), people I should avoid, and then she babbled on about some boy she liked. I had seen the boy in two of my classes and I could honestly say that he wasn't even good-looking.

_Seriously, what was wrong with this girl?_

It felt like the walk to the cafeteria took ages, not a few minutes. I knew one thing for sure, and that was that I did not want to sit with this girl at lunch. Which is why, while I took my food, I glanced around the cafeteria for any free seats.

"Hey," I nudged the girl I now remembered was named Jessica. "Who is that?"

Jessica looked in the direction I pointed. There sat a beautiful girl, with long blonde hair, alone at a table. She could have made any supermodel jealous, yet she looked so sad. She just sat there – simply staring at her untouched apple, no other food. She was skinny too, and she looked very tall.

"That's Rosalie Whitlock," She giggled quietly. "She is kind of a freak; no one wants to hang out with her. Lauren says that apparently, her parents died and that's why she is a total emo. Oh and she's totally a lesbian too."

"Yeah, and I bet she had never been kissed either," I muttered with heavy sarcasm in my voice. However, Jessica didn't notice the sarcasm and instead nodded enthusiastically.

I made my decision during a quick second. I could either stay here with _Jessica The Gossip Machine_, or I could sit in the only place she would for sure not follow me – next to the Rosalie girl. I chose the second option and left Jessica before she had a chance to realize what was happening.

"Hi!" I said when I reached Rosalie, and pulled out an empty chair next to her.

She looked at me with a shocked expression. "Ehum... hi," she said quietly.

"I'm Alice Cullen, the new girl. You're Rosalie, right?" She nodded.

Apparently, she wasn't much for small talk. "Cool! Do you know that Jessica girl?" I found it the safest subject to talk about, but her voice suddenly sharpened.

"_Yes_, I know her... I know who she is."

I grimaced. "Do people actually like her? She's so annoying, and what is even more annoying is that she think that the world revolves around her. _Oh, look at me, I'm sooo much better than everyone else_," I mimicked her voice. Rosalie started to laugh and nodded.

Thank God, she did not like Jessica; she was the first normal person I had met so far! I had a feeling that we would become great friends. I glanced around and noticed Emmett and Edward coming through the cafeteria doors. They looked around and waved at me. I signed to them to sit by us and they nodded.

"Are they your brothers?" Rosalie asked quietly.

"Yeah, the big one is Emmett and the one with the weird bronze hair is Edward. They can be a bit intimidating at first but they are sweet once you get to know them. Have you met them already?"

"Emmett is in my Home Economics class." I nodded along enthusiastically and signaled to my brothers that they should ditch the geeky boys hanging after them, and sit with us instead. Edward nodded but Emmett frowned as he saw Rosalie next to me. However, they came to sit next to us.

"Hi! Who's your new friend, Alice?" Edward asked and smiled at Rosalie. She smiled back hesitantly, as if she couldn't believe that he actually smiled at her. I happily introduced all of them to each other. She didn't say much, but smiled occasionally at me or Edward. Emmett, on the other hand, ignored her and didn't say anything to her.

Rosalie hesitated visibly. "Uh… Emmett?"

He snapped his head up from his food and glared at her. "What is it?"

"_Emmett!_" I hissed angrily at him. _How could he be so rude?_

"I'm…" Rosalie stuttered. "I'm sorry for this morning." It came out more as a question than an apology, but it made Emmett smile anyway.

All of a sudden, he was back to his normal self, telling her that it was okay. "I like to hike, eat, and hang out with friends. Alice loves to shop and chat with people on the internet. Eddy here likes to be gay, act as a total prude, and listen to depressing emo-rock. What about you?"

Edward smacked Emmett on the head and growled playfully at him. "I _do not_ act as prude!"

"You deny _that_, but you don't deny the gay thing?" Rosalie said, slightly sarcastically, causing my older brother to explode in laughter. Edward, on the other hand, blushed furiously. He wasn't used to being (unintentionally) humiliated by anyone else than Emmett.

"You are fun," Emmett declared, which in turn caused Rosalie to blush and raise her eyebrows. She didn't say anything against it though, and I suddenly got a feeling that the two of them would get along great.

"I… Um, I like cars." Rosalie answered Emmett's previous question. The two of them then got in a deep conversation about cars and car parts, which I and my other brother didn't understand a thing of.

We let them talk and instead started out own conversation about Forks High. Apparently, Edward disliked it as much as I did. Which was _a lot_. The only normal person we had met so far was Rose – all the other students were weird and constantly gossiping.

I looked at my clock and announced that we had to go, unless we wanted to be late. Rose wasn't in any of our classes, so we said goodbye to her. I told her that I would see her later, and she responded by simply looking skeptical. All three of us were going in different directions, so we made a plan to meet up in the parking lot after school, and we'd take Emmett's car home.

I spent my next class, English, thinking of the stunning man I had dreamt of the night before… And also ignoring the two boys who had tried to ask me out during the lesson.

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**(JASPER'S POV)**

The shiny, blue Volvo stood in the parking lot. The parking lot was absoultely _perfect_. Not many people parked in these parking lots after curfew. I was in rich-kid territory now, and they had left one of their toys behind. It was as if the car was teasing me.

_Come get me_, it said, _I'm right here._ I didn't hesitate this time. The whiny little rich brat who owned the thing would buy a new one, and I'd get the perfect paycheck.

I wasn't working right now, but that had never stopped me before. That car was a total babe – it thrilled me even more than the hoes throwing themselves at me. For the whiny rich-kid, it was just a car. For me, it meant that my sister would get a week full of normal food.

I didn't have to hesitate a split second before I skillfully unlocked the car – without actually having its keys. There was no one nearby. The popular, fancy mall was closed and no one thought of coming out here in the middle of the night. Only a few people were dumb enough to leave their cars in the parking lot, unsupervised, when they knew that the crime rate in Seattle was high.

My boys and I had probably committed half of those crimes. It still wasn't enough for us to live a richer life. The shit we did was pretty hard-core, don't get me wrong, but the cash was supposed to be split between a lot of people. That didn't leave much for any of us. For a second, I thought of not turning the car in to them, but I sent that thought away.

The rest of the hotwiring went smoothly, as usual. I was so used to doing it that I could do it without any concentration at all. The rich kid who owned the car hadn't even put on an alarm on his car. I actually felt a bit disappointed at that. The car chase was my favorite part of the whole act – even though I loathed it all. There wasn't much of a choice for me. Even if I'd somehow was able to earn cash in a different way, I was in too deep shit for them to let go of me.

After all, I _was_ talking about the roughest criminal gang in Seattle. They had caught me in an evil circle, with no way to get out. The rest of my night didn't look too promising – I'd be lucky if they'd let me home before my sister had to leave for school. I really hoped they would.

But everyone here knew that hoping didn't get you anywhere.


	4. Keeping A Promise

**A/N: ****Are Jasper and Alice finally going to meet in this chapter...? (wink, wink). **

**I thought that they were going to meet in the next chapter, but this chapter was way too short, so I decided to combine it with the next chapter. ****Tell me what you think****, I'm not Edward, so I can't hear it! (: **

**By the way, ****thank XxNonstoppSmilerxX that I got this chapter out so fast. Well, at least this is fast when it comes to me and the bunch of homework and tests I'm ignoring to post this. **

* * *

**(ROSALIE'S POV)**

As usual, the moment I opened my eyes, a terrible headache crashed upon me. I did the same as always, and tried to ignore the throbbing pain. It didn't help, but it was better than the only other option: to focus on the raw hunger instead. Take a pill? Thanks for the advice, but I didn't have a lot of pills to choose from unless I counted drugs. I didn't, yet.

I opened my eyes instead and stared one of the dirty walls. It would help my eyes to get used to the dark, even though the mud covering the walls were dark to. When it became possible for me to see _something_, at least, I glanced around in the room. I rather wished that I wouldn't have been able to see it. It wasn't exactly a pleasant sight.

When my eyes wandered over to Jasper's empty mattress, my breath caught. _It wasn't empty!_ It came as a total shock. The days when the two of us were 'home' at the same time were rare, and hadn't occurred in over a week now.

I tried to stop myself from gasping from happiness, but it was too late. Jasper stirred around in his bed and turned his serious face towards me.

"Good morning," he muttered with his hoarse voice. Of course, we couldn't actually see whether it was morning or not – the only window was covered with dust so thickly that our room constantly was dark. We were however pretty good at guessing.

"It's a surprise that you are home." I watched him stretch his bruised arms above his head. He really did deserve better… I forced the guilty feelings aside. I'd deal with them later.

Even though I hadn't seen him in a week, he looked just like he always did. His blonde hair was muddy and stuck up in every angle. His clothes were the same as he usually wore, but maybe a bit cleaner: the pair or black jeans and the black trashed T-shirt. If I remembered correctly, the laundry day (once a week) had been a few days ago. I didn't really know a lot about his life…

He was the same old Jasper, but the look in his eyes had changed _again_. Sure, it was dark in our room – maybe I didn't see him clearly. However, I knew my brother, and I knew when he was immensely unhappy.

He attempted to smile, but I think it came out more bitter than he had meant for it to. "I've got something for you." He reached into his jeans pocked and pulled out a... what was it? Could it be a _chocolate bar_? I hadn't eater chocolate since... a lot of years ago.

I looked at him and knew how hopeful my eyes were. "It's a chocolate bar," he explained, when I didn't make a move for it. I knew how skinny he was, so I immediately suggested that we could share it. He simply shook his head, and the chocolate tasted too good for me to ask again.

It was _perfect_. The sweet taste mixed with the bitter chocolate... I've heard that hunger makes the best appetite, but apparently it's true regarding chocolate too.

The chocolate bar ended long before I would have wanted it too, though there was nothing to do about that. Even a little of it had been amazing.

Then, I finally took the time to actually _look_ at Jasper. He looked miserable, as usual, but had fewer bruises than usual. The only sign that he had recently been in a fight was an already fading black eye. I grinned in spite of myself – that must mean that he had won the fight."Any plans for today?" I asked him.

"Just the usual." He sighed, "Got school today?"

I nodded. It was Friday, which meant that the boring weekend was getting closer. I didn't like school, but the thought of spending another full day by walking around the house wasn't too appealing either. Not much of a shocker there, then.

A loud crash from the kitchen caused Jasper to jump up to his feet. His eyes had been distant for a while now, and now I finally realized that he had waited for the sound of our scary foster parents waking up.

Jasper muttered something about having to work and told me that I should be going to school. Instead of retorting, as I wanted to, I put on some of the cleaner clothes on the floor. "Bye," I sighed and loosely hugged him. He'd never hug me back (something that hurt me more than I admitted) but at least he didn't pull away.

Ten minutes later, while I was running to the crashed bus station, the taste of the delicious chocolate bar lingered in my mouth. I really, really hoped that Jasper would give me a few more of those.

Then I remembered what he had once said while our real parents were alive. _Hoping doesn't get you anywhere. Fighting does. _

* * *

**(JASPER'S POV)**

Rose had gone to school a few hours earlier, so I could sneak outside without any guilty feelings. I'd had a shift with a few of my guys earlier today, but the only thing we had done was stealing some soda from an apartment. Extremely exciting… not.

This would have been my free hour. Once again, I was spending it with searching after a fancy car to steal. I would rather not, though, but after seeing how much my sister had enjoyed that chocolate bar... while watching her eat it, I had made a decision – I'd fix her some more good food, no matter what the cost would be.

I hated stealing cars; I considered walking a few blocks away and then rob a supermarket instead. Sadly, the risk of being caught was higher than by doing my what I did best. I'd also have to share all of it with the large gang, which wouldn't leave me much.

This was the fourth trashy street I was walking through. I hadn't found anything interesting enough. These neighborhoods didn't have any stupid rich-kids who happened to leave their cars behind. The nicest car on this particular street was a white Nissan, which was pretty worthless when calculating the money it would give me.

Suddenly, I saw a flash of red next to me. It was a damn hot motorcycle, something that'd definitely earn me some hardcore food cash. It also happened to belong to one of the leaders in our rival gang. _Damn_, that was too perfect to be true.

Even though this vehicle stealing wasn't something I liked, these situations were too hard to resist. The bike's owner obviously wasn't there, and very few people were on the street – none of them would be able to stop me, or even call the cops.

I didn't hesitate any more. Hotwiring the babe went smoothly – obviously. Once I was on it, no alarm went off. And driving it? Well, _it was awesome_.

The way to the gang garage was almost too short. I'd love to drive it longer than so... But that wasn't something I'd get to do. That shit was starting to irritate me. The 'guard' at the garage entrance recognized me and let me drive in.

Once I was inside, I had to jump off the awesome bike. I did it exactly on time, because the first person I met inside the garage happened to be the gang's leader, Shatown. Yeah, his name was weird as fuck – but who was I to whine about it?

"You've grabbed a hot piece of shit again, Whitlock. Plannin' on a career?" Shatown drawled. **(A/N: He didn't go to school at all, he's **_**supposed**_** to talk weirdly. Also, he's in a gang, they **_**do**_** swear, right?)**

"Well, no, but it'd be a hell of a mistake to let this baby slip, right?"

He agreed, and I pushed the car deeper inside of the garage. One of the other guys in the gang shouted at me across the quite big garage. "Aren't you _ever_ caught, Whit? I'll have to crash your car party some time."

I didn't bother answering; instead, I smirked at him. That guy, Michael, was the best at pocket theft, but bringing him along to steal a car... not such a good idea.

"Let's take a look at this honey. You can stay here a few hours, right, Whit?" One of Shatown's buddies said to me. He was kind of 'in charge' of all car and bike business. I nodded my agreement. Yeah, I didn't have any choice.

This was going to be one hell of a long day...

* * *

**(Still Jasper's ****POV, 24 hours later + a few more... - should have been next chapter)**

The dark surrounding me was soothing. Car thefts made me guilty – but I was slowly running out of other options. It'd be dangerous to think that I could somehow get rid of the guilt. Even these thoughts I had right now were too filled with the irritating emotion called 'hope'. Hope made everything seem so much worse once you realize that there is no way out.

Nevertheless, that wasn't what I should focus on. For once, I wasn't on a car chase again, looking after something that wasn't a collection of worthless trash pieces. I was actually only on a walk, trying to ease my mind from all the guilt it carried.

So far, it wasn't going so well. I tried again, harder this time, to push away all thoughts from my mind. What would one of those whiny rich-kids think about? I tried to imagine it in my head.

_That rusty old apartment is in a cool building... _I silently wondered whether it would be easy to break into it... and then caught myself before I could continue that thought.

It was simply the way my mind worked. It was trained to calculate all sorts of things into anything that'd give me an advantage. I sighed and walked faster, and soon I had gone down another one of these pointless streets.

What I saw parked in the middle of the street made me stop dead in my tracks. Okay, so maybe not _dead_. But the sight certainly was shocking. The ... _thing_... a few meters away from me was a freaking _yellow Porsche_.

It shocked me. Who'd leave a Porsche in these kinds of neighborhoods? And who the fuck bought a _yellow_ Porsche? It was sweet... but it also looked weird. I also couldn't help to notice how extremely expensive it must be.

I was next to it in a flash of a second and readied myself to hotwire it. There was no one nearby and I wouldn't miss an opportunity like this. That was when I heard the voice. My blood froze to ice. Even my almost non-existent heart stopped beating. The voice of a teenage girl yelled something to me.

"I love that car. If you steal it, I'll be really sad..."

Holy fuck, someone had busted me. That never happened! Wait, why wasn't she calling the cops? I froze in front of the car. Surely I had a chance to drive off before she saw my face and could tell on me. Should I?

"Please, don't."

* * *

**(ALICE'S POV – 4 hours earlier.) **

It was finally Saturday! Forks High School wasn't my favorite place, but I couldn't complain. I sat with Rose on lunch again yesterday, and we had a few classes together.

However, I felt like weekends were going to be my favorite days.

My brothers and I were sitting in my yellow Porsche, on our way to Seattle. We had decided to watch a movie there instead of only going to Port Angeles. That place was already getting boring. I had never been to Seattle before, so I let Edward drive. He drove excessively slowly for my taste, even though he was breaking the traffic rules.

We arrived at the Seattle movie theatre during one hour, which wasn't too bad. Then it was time for us to decide which movie we were going to see. I honestly didn't care. My brothers, on the other hand, were making it a big deal.

"A romantic comedy? Dude, seriously!" Emmett snorted at Edward's suggestion. "Let's watch action instead."

"What about action _and_ romance?" Edward suggested.

"Just because you won't get some doesn't mean that we'll watch a romantic movie with you, Eddy," he grinned.

Edward looked pissed off. "Last I checked, you don't have a girlfriend either."

I sighed and decided to interrupt their argument by quickly buying three tickets to a romantic action movie. Emmett whined about the romantic part, but shut up while we waited for the movie to begin.

Seattle movie theatre certainly wasn't big, but it wasn't too small either. During the whole movie, I fought not to fall asleep. It wasn't such a bad movie... It was however really boring and there was not much of a story to follow. It was mostly random people making out and a lot of guns and blood. When the movie was finally over, I think all of us breathed in relief. We went out of the theatre and breathed some fresh air greedily.

"Dude, that was terrible!" Emmett's horrified voice made me laugh. It really had been terrible. We decided that we'd _not_ take romantic action next time – as if that hadn't been obvious.

I grimaced to them. "What should we do now?"

It was Emmett that came up with the plan, and both Edward and I agreed to it, even though I didn't like the last part of it - my brothers, however, were overly excited.

We went to a fast-food place and each bought a sandwich. When we were done, I let Emmett drive to a store that apparently was cheap and sold training clothes. However, as we drove deeper inside the buildings and houses of a poorer part in Seattle, I got a bad feeling in my gut. These streets were dangerous, obviously, and we had left the safety of Seattle's mall a long time ago.

The sky was now pitching black, which didn't improve the unsafe feeling these streets gave me. Finally, Emmett pulled up on a side road and parked the car in the middle of the street. There weren't a lot of other cars there, and none of them were at all fancy.

This was definitely a part of Seattle that didn't wrinkle its nose by drugs and criminals.

"The shop is in the next street. Are you coming with us, Alice?" I shook my head – a sports shop didn't sound interesting. The boys shrugged and I watched them walk away from the passenger seat.

I sat still for about ten minutes, staring out of the car window, and then suddenly got a feeling. It was as if every nerve in my body was telling me that I _had_ toget out of the car _now_. I didn't know why it was so important – and it also wasn't an impulse that sounded tempting.

Taking one last glance out of the window, to the dark and narrow streets, I threw my car door open. The cold wind stole my balance for a moment, but I caught the car and was able to straighten myself out. I reminded myself that I'd have to buy a thicker jacket soon. The crazy impulse to do something had disappeared. However, now that I was outside, I might as well take a walk. There was no one nearby, and I had the keys to lock my car.

I walked down the street and took a sharp left turn into another one of these not-so-crowded streets. A few minutes later, I started to panic. The sky was too dark and the streets were too quiet. Maybe it was better if I went back to the car…

I got back just in time to see a dark figure stand uncomfortably close to my car. It was a man... Or was it a very muscular teenager? His muscles were tensing inside his black, trashed t-shirt. His hair was so muddy that I wasn't sure whether he actually had blonde hair.

I gasped when I realized that he was trying to hotwire my car. If I stood here one more second, he'd probably even succeed. I couldn't see his face, but I was sure that it looked just as dangerous as the rest of him. I took a deep breath, which I struggled to make quiet.

I couldn't just stand here and _not do anything_!

It only was a split second decision before my high-pitched voice cut through the air like a blade rasping a metal plate.

"I love that car! If you steal it, I'll be very sad."

He didn't say anything. He didn't even turn his head to look at me. But I had seen how his muscles had tensed a bit and his well-defined cheekbone seemed to clench. He had definitely heard me.

"Please, don't." My voice shook a little and my surprise increased when he actually answered me back.

"Why not?" His voice was hoarse and rough and the anger in them scared me more than anything. "It's just a car."

I wasn't sure what made me say what I did next.

"I got it for my sixteenth birthday. My grandmother convinced bought it for me so I could go and visit her in Chicago. Like on a car trip, you know. I promised her that I would. My parents got angry at her for it, they've had something against her ever since I was born. She died a month after buying the car for me. She didn't even tell us that she had cancer, and we didn't even go to the funeral. I still haven't fulfilled my promise, and it would suck if I couldn't."

Something in his features changed and he turned his dark, endless eyes towards me. He stared straight at me and I now saw his face. He seemed so… familiar, that it shocked me. He slowly started to back away from the car. He didn't look away nor relax his position. Soon he was almost swallowed by the shadows.

"Wait!" I yelled. "What's your name?"

I couldn't figure out why that'd be important, but I felt like it was. He turned away and walked into the shadows provided by an alley.

He called back to me quietly. "It's Jasper."

_Jasper. __Where had I heard that before…?_


	5. The Race Against The Past

**A/N: Thanks for all your ****support; a lot of you seem to like this story :) This chapter will contain heaps of action and it ended up a bit different than planned... Tell me if you liked it or hated it! :D **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight. **

* * *

**APOV**

I did very few things the following weeks—months even—and although the days passed slowly, I could not remember what I had done during the time.

My life focused on three main things, tasks to do before the dull light in Forks darkened and the night settled in. The time when I did not sleep, either I was in school — mostly alone or together with Rose, whom I now considered a new friend— or I was at home.

My brothers noticed that something wasn't quite right, and so did Esme and Carlisle. They tried to ask me what was wrong; I simply ignored the question the first time, and the second time my answer was vague. After that, they seemed to realize that I would not give them any information of value, any insight to my thoughts, and they left me alone.

The truth was that even I wasn't sure what had happened. The day after that night in Seattle, the night when _Jasper_ had tried to hotwire my car, I felt anticipation for... something. There was a feeling in my gut that I'd see him again and my brain—or somehow my subconscious—filled with scenes of him and me, _together_.

Then I had forgotten. Time passed and the hopeful thoughts faded. Forks and the nearby cities were once again dull. It took a few more weeks until something happened. Afterwards, I thought back of it—not without pain— and wished that everything had stayed dull instead. I had wanted action... well, that was a mistake. _A huge mistake. _

It was a Tuesday. I was not fond of Tuesdays; not only because of the terrible pick of lessons on my schedule (a two-hour long math class straight after chemistry class) but also because Carlisle and Esme had a new group of friends and on Tuesdays, they all hay dinner until almost midnight. It made me uncomfortable to be alone in the house when it was so late, but that wasn't all of it. I just hated the sound of a door smashing late in the night, since it reminded me so much of my _real_ parents.

Nevertheless, it was one of those Tuesdays. Edward was out with his new girlfriend, or rather girlfriends. Ever since we had moved here, he had dated a different girl each week. It was frustrating and we had had numerous fights about it, though he didn't really care what I thought about what he did. Emmett was somewhere in his room, perhaps with his earphones plugged in, or maybe already sleeping. I hadn't seen him all day... but lately, that was normal.

I was lying in my bed. All lights were off and I tried to keep my eyes shut. I had to sleep, I knew that. There was nothing to distract me, and my head was empty from thoughts. _So why couldn't I sleep...? _i had had a bad feeling in my gut all day, however, that was what always happened on Tuesdays lately.

I lay there, almost drifting to sleep, when I heard a crash from the front door. I assumed it was Esme or Carlisle who accidentally fell towards the door.

I heard the sound again, and then again. Now I knew for sure. Someone was banging on the front door... and it sounded like he or she was trying to break it down. Now I was sure it wasn't my parents.

My heartbeat quickened and I crawled quietly out of my bed. I pressed against the hard, cold floor and tried to decide what I should do before it was too late. I had a pretty good idea of who it could be. However, if it truly were them, they wouldn't only crash the door – they would torture and then kill me. They'd kill Emmett too, since he also was home.

_Oh God._ What should I do? What _could_ I do? This was all my fault. I took a deep, shaky breath and started crawling, still not daring to stand up. My room was on the second floor, across from Emmett's, and my window had a view of the front door. If they knew which room was mine, they would soon try to crash the window in case they didn't have any luck with the door. I found a pair of jeans and a hoodie on the floor and got dressed while still pressing against the floor – something that was not too easy to do.

I soon reached the window and sat on my knees to peek out of the edge of the window, glancing down at thefront garden... My heart stopped for a second. It was dark, but I saw the two muscular men in front of the door. Holy crap, it was _them_! They had found me! One of them flung himself towards the door and I heard the loud bang again. Where was Emmett? Didn't he hear them?

The other man glanced up at my window and I threw myself on the floor with a quickness that surprised me. My heart beat even quicker now and I heard the men shout at each other. I caught a few words such as "in that window". Since they had discovered me, I stood up and fled from my room as quickly as I could. Just as I opened my bedroom door they threw something hard at my window and crashed it. The ... thing ... they threw landed about a meter from me and I now saw that it was _a knife_.

Shit. They would kill me. They really would. I didn't pause again; I ran out of my room as quickly as I could and threw up Emmett's door. He was asleep with his earphones plugged in. That explained why he hadn't heard them. I shook him awake, pulled out his earphones and hysterically started to explain what was happening.

I could see that he didn't get it, he kept telling me to calm down. However, he then heard a loud smash from the front door (a lot louder than the ones before) and jumped out of bed.

I instructed him to follow me. Honestly, I didn't have any idea what I should do, and panic was taking over all my senses. I knew that we had to get out of the house before it was too late. Then I remembered the door we had in our kitchen, leading out towards the back garden. Perhaps we could reach it before they cracked the front door open and then we could run. _Where_ we were going to run was an entirely different question, one I didn't have time to think of.

Emmett stumbled behind me as we darted downstairs. We could hear them shouting now; we also saw the large cut in the door. In less then ten seconds we had managed to find the key to the back door and unlock it.

I ignored the logistic option (to hide next to the house, waiting for those evil persons to leave) and ran for my life down the street. Emmett followed me – though I'm pretty sure he could have run quicker since he was taller and more muscular.  
The ground hurt against my shoeless feet. The cold wind came as a shock. I could imagine that Emmett with only his pajama pants and shirt on was even more cold than I was. Although the more we run, the more numb I felt, and the less did I feel the cold.

I didn't register which way we ran: it might have been towards the school or towards the police station. I could've stopped and asked for help anywhere. I didn't, though. Emmett didn't suggest it either. We just ran, because we knew that they were following us even though we didn't see them yet. But surely two muscular men trained to fight were better runners than we were.

We ran until we felt like we couldn't run anymore, but we still weren't enough far away from the house. Forks was really small – it'd be easy for them to find us, unless we could get out of town as soon as possible, before they started searching after us (well, me) in the town.

_Oh my God. _I knew that they were going to kill. Maybe they would use my certain _knowledge_ first. Then, oh yes, they'd definitely kill me. I had to get away. I had to run faster, before they found me once again, before they'd kill Emmett and then me too. Somehow, I had to warn the rest of my family before it was too late. They wouldn't kill Carlisle, Esme or Edward, however, since they didn't know the things I knew. If they found Emmett together with me, though, they'd kill him too.

I felt like I'd collapse and somehow I think Emmett noticed that. I could feel that he'd suggest that we should ask for help in any place, but he didn't know those men like I unfortunately did.

We could now see the _Welcome to Forks_ sign and the bus station next to it. It was totally rare that any bus stopped there, but now... God, there was a bus there! That could be our perfect escape option. I didn't stop to check where the bus was headed. I ran quicker now, with newly found powers, eager to not to miss the bus. Emmett followed me, helplessly, though I could practically feel his confusion.

We reached the bus in the last second and jumped in through the door right when it was about to close.  
The bus driver stared at us, but instead of asking any questions, he told us to give him our tickets. Obviously, we didn't have any, so Emmett tried to explain that we really needed to get on the bus.

The driver interrupted us. "Either you have tickets or you have to get off this bus immediately."

I got an idea then. Perhaps he could let only one of us get a free ride. They weren't searching for Emmett: he'd be able to go to a friend's house and sleep there for the night. I'd get away to wherever this bus was going and both of us would survive. It was an easy and good plan. At least I thought so, but when I quietly explained the plan for Emmett, he looked unconvinced, unsure of whether he should leave me.

Eventually the bus driver's angry mutterings –he still hadn't moved the bus and was waiting for us to decide—and my pleading eyes made him decide. He trusted me, I knew that, so he nodded slowly and got off the bus. "Don't call the police! Tell our parents that I'm at a friend's house," I told him before turning back to the bus driver.

"Can I stay? Please?" I knew somewhere in my gut that he'd let me stay. Yes, I was right. He nodded and I walked down the bus aisle as he started the engine and drove out the street. I took a seat and simply stared straight ahead. There weren't a lot of people on the bus. There were only two more persons except for me. I sighed. For a moment I didn't even care that I was in such danger. That feeling came back soon, though.

The bus didn't stop for about half an hour and I forgot to look at the table where the bus' destination stood. When the bus did stop, it was in Port Angeles. Another half hour later, we stopped once again, in a place I didn't know of. I tried to look out of the window, but it was way too dark. It was midnight now.

I wondered whether Carlisle, Esme or Edward came home and I wondered whether the two men stayed behind to wait for me to come home or if they went after me. Maybe they gave up, but that wouldn't be likely. I wondered where I was going to stay, without money or anything. I wondered whether I'd be forced to move away again, far away from Washington. I wondered whether I should tell the police, and if they could help me in that case.

The bus stopped again, and this time I could get a look at the timetable. There was now only one person in the bus except for the bus driver and me. I thought that perhaps this bus led far away, which was both good and bad.

Then I saw where the bus' end station was. _Holy crap._ It was Seattle Bus Station. Oh, no. None of my chains of thoughts mattered anymore, I wouldn't have to wonder or hope anything. If the bus led to Seattle, I was just as damned as I had been in Forks. At least Emmett was safe, I told myself. That was all that mattered.

I grimaced. It wasn't all that mattered. I wanted to live, to survive, and now I was heading straight towards the enemies' lair. I hoped that there would be another station, but I could now see that we were heading into Seattle. It was too late.

The minutes after that discovery didn't matter to me. The bus stopped at a few stations in Seattle. At first in a fancy neighborhood and then it visibly became poorer and not pretty at all. I made a huge mistake then. I got off the bus at an unknown station (and not in a neighborhood that gave me a very safe feeling) and watched the bus drive away.

I had acted on impulse, not wanting to arrive on Seattle Bus Station and literally walk into a trap. I shivered in my T-shirt and a dry sob escaped from me. I'd literally be a dead man (woman) walking.

I looked at the bus station in front of me. It was pretty wrecked, but there was an alright-looking bench on it and it looked like no one was nearby. I took a deep, shaky breath and seated myself on the bench (which wasn't as stabile as it had looked).

I leaned my head against my forearms and shut my eyes tight.

Tomorrow I'd either wake up dead, as if that was possible, or I would continue to fight. Right now, I didn't care. I'd end up dead anyway. Did it really matter which way I'd die? If I froze to death, that would surely be less painful than those men finding me here, but in the end, I'd still die.

I forced my eyes to remain closed and prayed quietly in my head. I knew what I had to do and I had to do it. I had to stay here during the night, because this was by far my best shot at surviving: and it wasn't that big. I said goodbye to my family in my head, somehow sensing that this wasn't the last time I'd see them. It was odd, that I had a feeling that everything would end up all right, even though I knew that I would die.

Well, at least the bench was a comfy place to die on. I sobbed again and shivered in the cold.

_Goodnight. _

* * *

**A/N: Ooh, a cliffhanger! ****The first one that guesses correctly what'll happen when she wakes up can help me create a new character :D (I'll tell you what it's role would be). By the way, everyone that reviews will get a teaser! (if you want to). **

**Bye ;) **


	6. Friendship

**A/N: Yeah, I know that the last chapter was**** really confusing... Everything is explained in this chapter, I promise. Okay, not everything... but almost :)**

**I'm SO SORRY that I couldn't update earlier, but I had to re-install my entire computer! I'm so lucky that most of my files could be saved! :D**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.**

* * *

**APOV **

A loud gasp startled me and my eyes opened quickly. I didn't even have time to be happy – I was alive! They hadn't found me...The morning light burned my eyes but I forced them to stay open. I looked up and saw a person I never had expected to see here. What was she doing here?

"_Rosalie_?" I exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"

Rose stared at me, and a emotion I couldn't grasp flew across her face. Was it anger? I couldn't imagine why she'd be angry at me for being here, so it must've been something else.

"I could ask you the same thing... I'm on my way to school! So, what are _you_ doing here?" I tried to answer. Well, honestly, I was trying to lie. Something was stopping me, though. Instead of words came sobs and then unstoppable tears. Rose looked completely confused, but she didn't ask me any questions quite yet. She just sat down next to me.

"I think I have a few things to explain," I told her in between sobs. It was still so cold and I felt like I was about to freeze to death—or like I already had died and was now in a colder version of Hell. But Rose wouldn't be in Hell, so that theory couldn't be true.

She nodded. "Let's go to my house first."

* * *

**RPOV**

This morning was just like every other morning. It was Wednesday and those were normally good days. I was at the bus station when I saw someone familiar on the bench. I couldn't see the girls face, but I was sure that only Alice had black, spiky hair like that.

I gasped, which caused her to look up and now I saw that it actually _was_ Alice. What the fuck was she doing here? Had she found out where I lived? I cursed under my breath as I thought about all the terrible stuff she could've heard about me and my brother.

"Rosalie!" She yelled. "What are you doing here?"

I wasn't sure whether she was pretending to not to know or if she actually was here by accident." I could ask you the same thing," I muttered. "I'm on my way to school. What are _you_ doing here?" Suddenly, she started to cry.

Damn. I never knew what to do when someone cried. Finally, I sat down next to her and looked at her quietly. She wore a pair of dirty jeans and a t-shirt and had goose bumps all over her arms. Jasper had finally got me a leather jacket and I wore it without questioning where it came from. I was no longer as cold as I used to be, and I'd survive with this jacket during the winter, but only because I was used to go without a lot of clothes. Alice, on the other hand, looked like she was freezing to death.

"I have a few things to explain," she sobbed.

I made a split second decision and then nodded. "Let's go to my house first."

Saying that was a lot easier than what followed. I gave her my jacket, but she was still cold. It took a lot of time to steady her and force her to take small steps and it felt like hours (though it was only a few minutes) until we had walked five meters.

It usually took me fifteen minutes if I ran from my house to the bus station. If I'd walk, it would take about half an hour. I could already see that this would take considerably longer and we didn't have that much time to waste, because Alice's lips and fingertips were so purple that they'd fit in a rainbow.

Her sobs didn't help to increase the tempo and then finally I stopped. "Alice, please, can you try to go quicker? I know that your body hurts 'cause of the cold, but this'll take really long time if we won't go faster!"

She nodded and we quickened up a little bit, though it still wasn't quick enough. I couldn't press her for more, though.

Later (_a lot_ later) we were getting closer to my house. I didn't really think of it as my house, but what else could I call it? We were on the street the house was on and luckily, there was no one on the street, though that wasn't really a surprise.

Alice hadn't said a word during the whole time. I had a lot of time to think of what she'd think of my house: there were a few reasons why I had never brought anyone to the house and not only that I didn't actually have any friends. _Now you have_, a little voice in my head whispered but I chose to ignore it. The only reason why I did this was that I noticed that something was very wrong with Alice... and perhaps we could be friends. "This is it," I told her and prayed that Laila and Conny wouldn't be in the kitchen as I opened the door.

They were. I knew that if Jasper had been with me he would've looked at me and I would instantly have known what he meant: hoping didn't help. Laila turned her head towards us and so did Conny.

"Why aren't you gone?" Conny spat. They were sitting at the so-called "kitchen table" with papers and a pen in front of them. The papers were empty, all of them were. They were probably discussing what they should write, _should_ being the key word here. It was all they ever did; they never actually wrote anything, just argued about it.

"I'm sick and so is my friend." I lied bluntly and didn't feel bad about it. People like Conny and Laila didn't deserve the truth – hell, they didn't deserve _anything_.

Both of them looked at us, disgusted. "Don't you dare come close to me, you sick bitch," Conny growled. Any other time, I would've loved that he didn't even realize that he called me a _sick_ bitch after I told him that I was sick. I didn't laugh now though, mainly because I noticed Alice's terrible attempt at hiding her horrified stare.

"_Get out_!" Laila raised her voice. I nodded and dragged Alice along with me in the short corridor to the room that I shared with Jasper. He was not there though, and for the first time ever, I felt grateful for that.

I gestured to Alice to sit down on my mattress and she did so while watching me close the door. She was still quiet and I didn't know whether she was extremely cold or just shocked that I lived in this place. I saw her look around the room; honestly, it didn't take long because it was so small and it was also so dark that we almost didn't see anything. I saw her eyes pause on the other muddy mattress.

I decided to explain before she had the chance to ask. "Those were my foster parents. I have an older brother, he sleeps there, but he's never here. Umm... Well, now you know why I don't like to bring people here."

I was freaking out, because she still wasn't saying something. I knew now that it had been a terrible idea to bring her here. She was like everyone else and judged me. "_DAMN IT!_" I cursed under my breath.

She shuddered and I wasn't sure whether it was because she was cold or disgusted. I kneeled down on the floor, which was made of betony but thankfully, my few belongings covered it so Alice couldn't see it. It took a while until I could see the difference between the clothes on the floor and then I grabbed one of my warmest hoodies and handed it to her. She smiled a little, then, and pulled it over her thin T-shirt.

"I... I... I'm s... s... sorry you have to live this way..." She told me between clenched teeth. "It doesn't change the way I look at you... That's what you're worried about, isn't it?"

I looked at her skeptically – of course it did, but I wasn't about to tell her that. I could let her lie while she had to stay here and when we would go back to school; she'd never talk to me again. That was just the way it was. With Lauren, it had been slightly different, but at the same time almost like this situation.

"It's okay, Alice... You should sleep. I can stay on my brother's mattress."

With that, I lay down and determinedly closed my eyes. I heard her sigh and I knew that regardless of whether she wanted to sleep or not, she would follow my advice.

Hours later, I woke up, startled, by the sound of a soft whimper. It took me a while to remember everything that had happened this morning. I opened my eyes and stared at Alice – who was wide awake and had her eyes glued to me. "Well, this is nice," I snorted. I assumed that it was afternoon and I wondered if Alice was hungry.

I already knew the answer to that. Even I was hungry, and my body was adjusted to not eating any lunch or breakfast, while she was used to eating regular meals. How I'd explain to her that we had slim chances of getting some food was something I didn't know yet. She sighed loudly and sat up on her mattress – technically, it was _my_ mattress. I sat up too and knew that now was the time that she would explain. Or at least I hoped so, because if she started to explain things first, then I wouldn't have to begin.

"It's a really long story, you know," She told me quietly.

I snorted again. It wasn't as if we didn't have time. In fact, we had too much time. "Go ahead," I said. I wasn't at all worried of what she would tell me. That is, until she actually begun her story.

"It all started five years ago, when I was thirteen. I lived with my real parents back then. We used to live in California, but my aunt Maria lived here in Seattle. I never knew her, but one day my parents told me that she had died. They arranged for us to fly down to her funeral and they insisted that I should be there too."

I frowned – what did this have to do with why she was in Seattle?

"Just wait a second, I'll get to it," She told me, as if she knew what I was thinking. "It wasn't a big funeral. Only we, a few unknown relatives and my grandmother were there. I was angry at my parents for bringing me to Seattle – they had decided that we would stay here for two weeks. I refused to talk to anybody, trying to make a statement or something stupid like that, and the only one I talked to was my grandma."

"She advised me not to be angry at my parents, but I ignored her. Oh, yeah, I forgot to tell you – they were thinking of moving to Seattle! I hated it here and when I found out that they had bought my aunt Maria's house, I ran away. That's a bit over exaggerated – I just took a long walk and ended up in some ... worse places of Seattle."

Alice's voice broke. I had a bad feeling in my gut, telling me that whatever she was going to tell me next would be something I wouldn't particularly like. Damn, Alice was the least likely person I had expected to have a "shady" past... but if she was about to tell me what I thought she was...

"I kept thinking of things that would upset my parents. I kept thinking, 'they would tell me not to walk on this street' or 'they would warn me not to stay out too late'. It was my way of revenge, or something. Then I saw a really old, badly-built house, and I was sure that they would forbid me to even go close to it... But they weren't there, and the door was open."

"I didn't want to _do_ anything, just check out what was inside of it. I opened the door and it was pretty dark... I couldn't see much, apart from a few folders next to the door. It looked like a freakin' gang house! I looked inside of them and found some seriously secret information... information I wasn't supposed to see... information about..."

I finished her sentence for her with a dull, emotionless voice. "... You found information about a gang in Seattle."

She sobbed, not surprised that I had known. She didn't have to tell me the rest; I could figure it out by myself. Someone must've found her, but she got away somehow. Ever since then, a few guys from the gang were chasing after her, with one goal: to get rid of her and the potential danger she was.

"When I got home I didn't tell my parents anything. They decided that we shouldn't move to Seattle at all, and we went back to California. A month later, they died in a car accident... and Carlisle and Esme adopted me. We lived in California and for a while, everything seemed all right... Until I got a threatening letter telling me that those guys from the gang were after me, and we moved to Forks."

I sighed and blinked slowly. "But they found you here too," I said softly and she nodded. There was nothing else to say.

Hell, this was more complicated than I thought in the first place... But she couldn't be talking about Jasper's gang, could she? No... right? "And now... It's your turn to explain some stuff." Alice smiled wryly at me. Yes, I had some serious explaining to do. And I really, really hoped that she wouldn't react the way I reacted to her story... But I wasn't planning on telling her the truth.

"It's a too complicated story," I started. "I have a brother. We used to live with our parents, but they were violent. They abused us, and we had no way out... So we ran away, and we didn't have any money, so we went to social services.

"They found us a family we could stay with, here in Seattle, because we refused to go elsewhere, and we also made a deal with them. The deal was that I'd get to go to a school. They agreed, and they found decent families for us at first, but we kept screwing it up. They stopped caring about us and we had to live with poor families for years ... and now we've ended up with Conny and Laila, not exactly ideal foster parents, but not too bad compared to the others."

Alice was quiet for a while. Then she smiled lightly. "I guess we now have proof that life sucks. I'm so sorry, Rose..."

I giggled, agreeing with her, and secretly happy that we could make a joke out of the whole thing. "Don't say you're sorry, though, because it's not your fault."

We spent the next few hours or so just joking around. We were talking about irrevelant stuff, things I had never thought I'd talk about... But as time passed, I realized that this was what friends were supposed to do.

We talked about make-up, clothes and fashion. None of those things were subjects I could say much about, but Alice went on and on about how someone named Gucci was different from Armani... I had no idea if I was supposed to know who those people were. Fashion designers, she explained, when I was looking really lost.

We also talked a lot about school, and the school food. We talked about Jessica and her gang, and the guys at school. Alice told me that she didn't find any of them cute. Even though I agreed, I questioned her, wondering what her type was. "Dangerous, sexy bad boys," she told me.

The worst part might have been that she was completely serious – I couldn't stop myself from laughing. She had no clue that I saw those idiots in Jasper's gang, which were exactly as she explained. The laughter caught in my throat as I remembered that _Jasper_ was one of those boys. If something would unfortunately happen and she met Jasper, would she act just like Lauren Mallory did? I shook that thought out of my head. No, this was Alice – _my friend._

I couldn't understand why she would want someone as stupid as those gang boys, though. Sure, they were attractive – very attractive. That was something I couldn't deny. But they were also careless and violent. They were fighting for their lives, and inflicting pain in others was a part of the way they survived. The more "dangerous, sexy and bad" they were, the more they had to step on others to become that way.

No, they were definitely not my type... I would want someone that could protect me and care about me, and joke with me... someone with cute dimples... I'd want... Emmett.  
Wait, _shit_, did I actually think that? Thank God that Alice had moved on to another subject (fashion for men, I think) and didn't ask me what _my_ type was. Okay, I didn't like Emmett. I couldn't like Emmett. _Shit_.

I shut out my thoughts and listened to Alice's rambling again, this time about perfumes. "... I sometimes actually get worried that they'll start with an 'animal smell collection'. They already have perfumes that smell like rain, wood and stuff like that. Maybe their next perfume will smell like a dirty pig. They could call it _pig-licious_."

I giggled (_again! How odd!_) at her talk about perfumes. "Well, they'd have to make one for you too. We could call it _Alice Without Shower_."

"Shut up!" She gasped and pouted. Yeah... so maybe this was what friends did. I'd never thought I'd say this, but it was actually really fun, and I wished that it would never end. However, all good things had to end sometime, and it would end sooner than we had expected...

* * *

_A/N: Can you guess how Alice will meet Jasper in the next chapter? And how can Alice get in touch with her family to tell them that she's okay, without those gang boys finding out? And is Alice safe at Rose's house, and if she is, how long will she have to stay there? _

_Find out in the next chapter... and the one after that... and the one after that... Or ask me in a review! ;)_

_Hugs, Trasselgirl._


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